MYSORE, CANARA, AND MALABAR. 
mg into the management of the Lac inseet; and for this purpose CHAPTER 
we collected all the people who follow that employment. I have 
always found, that the more of any class of people were assembled, Ju b r * 7 * 
the more likely I was to get just information : not that all of them 
spoke; some one or two men generally answered my questions; 
but they did it without fear of reflexions from those who mip-ht 
otherwise have been absent ; as every one, if he chose, had an oppor- 
tunity of speaking. The Hindus of all descriptions, so far as I have 
observed, are indeed very desirous of having every kind of business 
discussed in public assemblies. 
The people who manage the Lac insect, in the hills near Nandi - Lac insect, 
durga, are of the cast called Woddaru ; and for the exclusive use 
of the trees they pay a rent to government. The tree on which 
the insect feeds is the Jala , which is nearly related to the Saul of 
Bengal, or the Shorea of Gartner, and perhaps the Vatica Chirmis 
of Linnaeus. All the trees that I saw here were small, not exceed- 
ing eight 01 ten feet in height ; and their growth was kept down 
by the insect and its managers; for this size answers best. The 
tree, left to itself, gro\Vs to a large size, and is good timber. For 
feeding the insect, it thrives very well in a dry barren soil; and is 
not planted, but allowed to spring up spontaneously as nature di- 
rects. It is often choked by other trees, and destroyed by Bam - 
hooi-, which, by rubbing one against another, in this arid region, 
frequently take fire, and lay waste the neighbouring woods. By- 
removing all other trees from the places where the Jala naturally 
grows, and perhaps by planting a few trees on some other hills, 
and protecting them from being choked as they gradually propa- 
gate themselves, the Lac insect might be raised to any extent on 
lands now totally useless, and never capable of being rendered 
arable. In Kartika , or from about the middle of October to the 
middle of November, the Lac is ripe. At that time it surrounds 
almost every small branch of the tree, and destroys almost every 
leaf The branches intended for sale are then cut off, spread out 
